


Medium Americano, Right?

by Chlexcer



Series: College Boyfriends - TaeKai [1]
Category: EXO (Band), SHINee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, M/M, Romance, corniness and clichés probably
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-01
Updated: 2016-05-01
Packaged: 2018-06-05 14:40:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6709012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chlexcer/pseuds/Chlexcer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The two things Jongin hates the most are mornings and coffee, which is kind of funny since he has to work the early shift at the campus coffee shop three days a week. A certain client’s visit, though, makes things so much sweeter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Medium Americano, Right?

Jongin thought he could never stop cursing the day he thought sending his resume to the campus coffee shop was a good idea.

Out of principle Jongin had never taken classes before midday more than two days a week, but since the coffee shop administrator gave him a call a little over a two months ago and offered him a job, he had been forced to sacrifice his three free mornings to work the early shift. And there were few things Jongin hated more than mornings.

One of them was coffee.

Jongin had never been able to figure out why people liked coffee so much. Whether they were the simplest espresso, or the most complicated thing in the menu with a hundred toppings and syrups and a long ass name in Italian, Jongin hated them all the same; the former for tasting straight up like poison, and the latter for being the proof that people thought that coffee tastes bad and that you have to add random things in it to make it taste good enough.

But whenever he thought about quitting, he remembered he couldn’t afford to do that. His parents had told him they would only pay for his education if he studied a career they approved of, but two years into a major in business had been more than his mind and his body could take before he lost his mind. He dropped out to pursue a major in dance and choreography in a different university without his parents’ financial support. He had found a job at a shop near campus, which helped him pay for his entire first year, but ever since it got closed down at the beginning of the year to build a huge office building instead, Jongin had been forced to find himself a new job.

At least they paid well.

Since Jongin’s co-workers, an older girl called Minseon who was getting a Master’s degree in film-making and a tall and clumsy guy called Chanyeol who was majoring in music production, already knew how much he despised coffee, they let him handle the register most of the time, something he was extremely thankful for, while they prepared cup after cup of liquid misery to clients that looked more like zombies than people.

Jongin finished writing the name of a girl on a light brown cup on which he had already indicated the details of her elaborate drink, and he passed it to Chanyeol before he turned around to face the next client in line, though he didn’t really bother to look up at him at first.

 

 

“Good morning, how can I—?” the coffee shop cashier started, but Taemin interrupted him, smirking.

“Mornin’, Jongin,” he said, and the cashier looked up, surprised. Taemin’s smirk only grew more, and he ran a hand through his hair. He hadn’t had time to style it, but it’s not like it really mattered. He had an early hip hop lesson where he sweated so much he couldn’t get away without showering afterwards—he could wash his hair then. He was pleased when he saw Jongin’s eyes following the movement of his hands for a split second. “Wow, no offense, but you look like you’ve seen better days.”

Jongin rolled his eyes, which caused Taemin to snicker.

“Taemin,” the cashier sighed, and Taemin cocked his head and looked at him expectantly when he noticed his dark eyes running over him and his thick lips curving into a small smirk of their own. “Your hair looks like a bird’s nest.”

Taemin gasped, putting a hand over his chest in mock offence. “It’s called stylish bed-hair, for your information.”

The cashier grabbed a cup –a medium sized one— and a pen, and Taemin saw him and heard him chuckle as he scribbled across the brown cup before handing it over to one of his co-workers. “Well, I hope you get it disinfected before the next time you come here.”

“Oh, come on, it’s not so bad!” Taemin said, and Jongin shrugged, a smile on his lips as he typed Taemin’s order into his computer. Taemin clicked his tongue. “Yah, aren’t you going to ask me what my order is?”

Jongin looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Are you not going to have a medium Americano?”

“Of course I will,” Taemin answered, grinning as he reached in his pocket for a crumpled bill to give to the cashier, “but you can’t just assume. What if you’re wrong? What if I wanted to have a large soy milk caramel latte, or whatever?”

“I think I know you well enough by now,” Jongin said, taking the bill and printing the receipt before gathering coins to give to Taemin as change.

“If you say so,” Taemin smiled when he received the receipt and the change from Jongin, and he felt a bit fuzzy inside when he saw that the other boy also smiled when their hands touched briefly. “Bye, handsome. See you around.”

Jongin shook his head, and before he could say anything Taemin slipped to the other side of the shop to wait for his coffee.

After he received his steaming cup of coffee from a cute short-haired girl, Jongin and he exchanged one brief last look. Then, he left.

He had to cross the entire campus in under two minutes if he wanted to make it in time to his class, but even if he was late he knew he wouldn’t regret it.

 

 

Only when Jongin’s shift was over almost five hours later was he able to check his phone, which had vibrated insistently inside of his pants pocket far too many times. He was changing into his normal clothes in the staff room –even though he knew the annoying smell of coffee wouldn’t go away— when he checked his pending notifications.

He smirked when he saw he had six unread Kakao Talk messages and one unseen photo from his boyfriend.

From: Tae (sent at 8:37 AM)  
_what is this!!!!!_

The following message was a picture of a brown cup of coffee he had seen far too many times, but this one was slightly different. In black Sharpie ink and in Jongin’s own handwriting, the words _’stop looking so hot with messed up hair, dumbo’_ were written across the cup on the space that was supposed to be covered by the cup sleeve but that Jongin knew his boyfriend always removed after finishing his coffee. Taemin was fidgety like that.

From: Tae (sent at 8:37 AM)  
_first you call my hair a bird’s nest and then you do stuff like this smh_

The three next messages were strings of different emojis containing hearts, grumpy faces, and blushing faces in equal amounts, all of which made Jongin laugh to himself.

From: Tae (sent at 8:39 AM)  
_hope you have a great day and you don’t get shitty clients. Call me when you get out and tell me if you’d like to come over after class to watch a movie or take a nap or something ;)_

Jongin raised his eyebrows, unimpressed but tempted. He had classes until eight PM, and he was usually very tired by the end of the day, but the prospect of _‘a movie, a nap, or something winky-face’_ with Taemin was way too attractive. It was a Friday night, and it was very likely for Taemin’s roommate to spend the night elsewhere.

As soon as Jongin was out of the shop and on his way to his first class of the day he dialed Taemin’s number.

“ _Jongin-ah, hey! _”__

__“I still can’t believe you really told me ‘bye, handsome’ in front of the entire store,” Jongin said into the phone, smiling when he heard a soft chuckle from the other side of the line._ _

__“ _I had to. You looked like you were dying there. And the other people in the queue were half dead, anyway, I’m sure they didn’t hear, if that’s what’s worrying you. How was work? Are you going to come over tonight, or are you too tired? And by the way, when I said we could take a nap I really meant taking a nap, so being tired isn’t a valid excuse _,” Taemin said. Jongin could hear people talking close to Taemin, probably his friends since it was lunch period and because he heard some cooing and Taemin telling someone to cut it off.___ _

____“I’m not too tired. I want to see you,” Jongin said, but before the sentence could linger for too long he added. “I hope you disinfected your bird’s nest hair like I told you, though, or else I’m not getting anywhere near you.”_ _ _ _

____“ _Fuck you, Jongin._ ”_ _ _ _

____Jongin chuckled. “I love you, too.”_ _ _ _

**Author's Note:**

> What a cutie *endless sigh*  
> Anyway, here is another 300% self-indulgent fic - mostly oneshot practice. I have to learn how to /not/ make my fics endless.  
> Hope you liked it!!


End file.
